The proliferation of stun guns among law enforcement, security forces and facilities for holding large animals throughout the world, has caused an unanticipated problem. Stun guns, such as the Taser® gun, work by shooting barbed darts into the subject. These darts are typically connected to thin wires, through which a series electric pulses is passed to pacify the subject.
After the subject has been subdued, it is necessary for a responding professional to remove the dart(s) from the subject. This is typically done by holding the subject down with one hand, while removing the dart with the other. Unfortunately, during this operation the subject may suddenly and unexpectedly move. This, in turn, may throw the responding professional off balance to the point that he inadvertently jabs the barbed end of the newly removed dart into the hand used to hold down the subject.
Far from being a minor, temporary injury, this brief event may have a life-long and tragically life-shortening effect on the responding professional, who may contract a strain of hepatitis, HIV-AIDS or any one out of a long list of blood born pathogens from blood on the dart.
This very occurrence has become all too common, with thousands of people reporting injury every year and with a percentage of those infected with a deadly virus through this type of mechanism or a related cause, such as an intravenous, arterial, subcutaneous or intramuscular needle-stick type injury. Some way must be found to make the removal of stun gun darts safer for the personnel who must remove them from the subjects as part of their profession.
Additionally, after retrieval it is desirable to take steps to preserve the dart as evidence for law enforcement.